Succulents and More™

My Mangave ‘Foxy Lady’ is in the process of making bulbils — dozens, maybe hundreds. I was going to include a few photos in my last This and that post , but I decided to write a separate piece so I can dive a bit deeper into the mystery and marvel that are bulbils. Bulbils forming on the flower stalk of my Mangave ‘Foxy Lady’ Bulbils are baby plants, genetically identical to the parent, that form directly on the flower stalk (aka inflorescence). Often they develop the beginnings of roots (called root primordia) while still attached. In nature, when the bulbil-laden flower stalk eventually falls over or the bulbils are dislodged by wind or wildlife, they quickly take root and begin growing as independent plants. Bulbils are rare in the wider plant kingdom, but fairly common in some plant families like amaryllis and lily. Some agave species (as well as most furcraeas and certain yuccas) produce bulbils as a brilliant evolutionary insurance policy. The reason is simple: Most agaves a...

Except for a brief heatwave, the weather has been surprisingly mild this June. Still, we’ve reached the time of year when putting new plants in the ground isn’t the best idea. This means that my favorite things to do in the garden (like planting) are on hold until the fall. As I’ve said many times before, summer is my least favorite season, but skipping it isn’t an option, so instead of actively doing stuff, I spend more time observing. With no real projects on the horizon, I’ll probably have more This and that type posts than usual. I actually like them because I can talk about things that wouldn’t necessarily warrant a dedicated post. So, in no particular order.... ALIEN This new arm coming out on this San Pedro cactus reminds me a lot of the chestburster scene in the movie Alien : San Pedro cactus Five days later TRY TRY AGAIN Lewisias are succulents native to dry rocky slopes in subalpine regions of the Western U.S. They’re one of the few succulent genera native to California, an...

Growing cacti from seed is quite easy, but it requires patience. Depending on the genus and species, it may take two, three, four, or even five years for seedlings to grow into flowering-size specimens. I already have well over 100 cactus seedlings in my care, between the German echinopsis hybrids I mentioned recently , other open-pollinated echinopsis hybrids (‘June Noon’, ‘First Light’, and ‘Flying Saucer’), as well as dozens of assorted Astrophytum asterias . If you got tired just reading this, I sympathize. However, I had so many spectacular echinopsis hybrids flower earlier this spring that I decided to harvest seeds from two of them. The first is a German hybrid, Echinopsis ‘Liskes Feuerzauber’ (in the U.S. usually referred to as ‘Magic Fire’). It debuted this year with flowers that blew me away: Echinopsis ‘Magic Fire’ Echinopsis ‘Magic Fire’ Some cacti produce seed pods that dry up and release the seeds when they’ve become brittle. To harvest the seeds, all you have to do i...